The 2018 Yankees are kicking butt right now, and today, for at least a few hours, we can forget all about the 2018 Yankees. Today is the 72nd annual Old Timers’ Day at Yankee Stadium. One of my favorite days of the year. The Yankees are pretty much the only team that pull off something like this. The Dodgers tried it a few years ago and the Red Sox tried it earlier this year, and it was kinda sad.

Speaking from experience, Old Timers’ Day is best enjoyed in person at the ballpark rather than through television. It does make for a mighty long day at Yankee Stadium, but it’s worth it. Here is this year’s roster of Old Timers. Among those making their Old Timers’ Day debuts today are Aaron Boone (duh), Andy Pettitte, Jason Giambi, and Nick Swisher. Pettitte’s going to get a great reception. Swisher’s going to have more fun than anyone, guaranteed.

The Old Timers’ Day festivities are scheduled to begin at 11:30am ET. As always, there will be baseline introductions followed by the Old Timers’ Game. Here are the Old Timers’ lineups, via Jeff Quagliata:

Decided advantage for the Bombers, I’d say. I hope Giambi puts one in the upper deck for old time’s sake. That’d be fun. After all the Old Timers’ Day fun, the Yankees will look to finish the four-game sweep of the Rays. Here are the starting lineups:

Wonderful weather for Old Timers’ Day. It’s hot out, so that kinda sucks, but there’s a bright blue sky and plenty of sun. The weather always seems to be perfect for Old Timers’ Day. Like I said, the Old Timers’ Day festivities will start at 11:30am ET and of course YES will carry all of it. Today’s game against the Rays will begin at 2:05pm ET and you can watch that on YES as well. Enjoy the day.

The Yankees and Angels continue their three-game series later tonight, but not until 7pm ET. Saturday night games are The Worst. Here are some notes to check out before first pitch.

Pettitte to make Old Timers’ Day debut

Andy Pettitte is officially an Old Timer. The Yankees announced the 2018 Old Timers’ Day roster earlier this week and Pettitte is among the first-timers, along with Jason Giambi, Nick Swisher, Dion James, and (of course) Aaron Boone. The usual cast of characters will be in attendance as well. Here is the press release. Old Timers’ Day is Sunday, June 17th, this year.

Pettitte, who turns 46 next month and recently became a grandfather, retired for good following the 2013 season. He will be Hall of Fame eligible for the first time later this year. Mike Mussina has been unable to get over the hump and into Cooperstown, and based on that, I don’t think Pettitte is getting voted in anytime soon. I do think he’ll stay on the ballot for several years though. Going to be fun to see him at Old Timers’ Day.

23. Yankees: Brice Turang, SS, Santiago HS (Corona, Calif.)Turang was mentioned as a candidate to go No. 1 overall entering last summer, and while he hasn’t lived up to those expectations, he’s still a talented shortstop in a Draft thin at that position. A variety of high school position players get mentioned with New York, including Adams, Casas, Edwards and outfielder Mike Siani (Pennsylvania).

Here are my write-ups on Turang, Siani, and Triston Casas. Could’ve sworn I wrote one for North Carolina OF Jordyn Adams, but apparently not. Florida HS SS Xavier Edwards is still on my list of draft prospects to profile. Anyway, once again the Yankees are connected to bats. That has been the case all spring. Aside from guys expected to go in the top 5-10 picks, this draft class is light on college bats, so it’s no surprise the Yankees are connected mostly to high school kids. The draft is a week from Monday.

It’s unclear whether the Nike swoosh will appear in a similar spot going forward. Majestic currently provides MLB apparel and their logo appears on the sleeves of all jerseys except the Yankees. The Yankees were granted an exception. They weren’t getting an exemption from Under Armour. No idea what’s up with the Nike deal.

I’m of the belief it’s only a matter of time until there are advertisements on MLB jerseys — they’re not going to look like NASCAR cars or anything, but I bet we see advertisement patches on sleeves in the near future — and a logo on the chest of jerseys is step one. Well, no, step one was the Majestic logo on jersey sleeves and step two was the New Era logo on the side of caps. A logo featured on the front of jerseys is step three. Jersey ads are coming. Maybe not with the Nike deal, but eventually.

MLB releases study on “juiced ball” study

Earlier this week MLB released the results of a study into the “juiced baseball,” or, in English, they looked at whether changes to the ball led to the uptick in home runs. Here’s a breakdown of the results. The study found the baseball itself has not changed. Everything is within specifications, though, to be fair, those are wide-ranging. From the study:

There is also no evidence that any variations in the ball occur either intentionally or through substandard quality control by Rawlings. If anything, they would be inherent to the manufacturing process, which relies on substantial “by hand” labor.

The committee in charge provided recommendations, which include potentially establishing standards for storage (i.e. a humidor in all parks). Homers are actually down this year — teams are averaging 1.12 homers per game, down from 1.26 last year and 1.16 homer the year before — but they’re still flying out of the park at one of the highest rates in history. I like dingers. Dingers are cool. If MLB does something to reduce dingers, I’ll be bummed, but I’d understand.

The Yankees and Royals continue their three-game series later today — the Yankees haven’t played back-to-back days since last weekend due to all the off-days and rainouts — though it’s a 7:15pm ET start, so we have to wait a few hours first. Here are some notes to help you pass the time.

Harper shoots down Yankees questions

As expected, Bryce Harper was asked about his impending free agency and the possibility of signing with the Yankees after the season when the Yankees visiting Washington earlier this week. And, not surprisingly, Harper wouldn’t entertain those questions. What else could he do? Here’s what Harper said, via Greg Joyce:

“I’m a National now,” Harper said. “We’re going into this series trying to win some ballgames. It’s the only thing on my mind, trying to beat a good team over there.”

…

“It doesn’t matter who we’re playing,” Harper said. “If it’s the Yankees, Cubs, Dodgers, Phillies, name it. It doesn’t really matter the team or the atmosphere, just try to go in there and win ballgames.”

I’ve seen some “the Yankees don’t need Harper because they have Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton” takes recently and, uh, no. The Yankees could cut ties with Brett Gardner after the season — this is the final guaranteed season on Gardner’s contract — which frees up a spot for Harper. Harper, Judge, Stanton share the two corner outfield spots and DH. See how easy that is?

Now, will the Yankees actually pony up the $400-something million that will likely be required to sign Harper? As I’ve said before, I don’t believe Hal Steinbrenner’s master plan is spending like crazy once the luxury tax rate resets, but I’d be happy to be wrong. And even then, would anyone be surprised if the Yankees opted to pursue Manny Machado or Clayton Kershaw over Harper this winter? I know Harper grew up a Yankees fan, but I seriously doubt that means he’s willing to give them a discount.

Mesa brothers leave Cuba to pursue MLB contracts

According to Jesse Sanchez, outfielders and brothers Victor Mesa Jr. and Victor Victor Mesa have left Cuba to pursue MLB contracts. They are the sons of Victor Mesa Sr., a legendary player and manager in Cuba. Victor Victor is 21 while Victor Jr. is only 16. Both will be subject to the international spending restrictions once they are cleared to sign, a process that should take several weeks.

Victor Victor is the more highly regarded prospect and, according to Ben Badler (subs. req’d), he has “star potential” and is comparable to Nationals top prospect Victor Robles. “If (Victor Victor) were in the draft next month, I think he would be a top 10 overall pick, with the potential to go No. 1 overall,” added Badler. There’s very little information out there about Victor Jr. at the moment, though he is not the same caliber prospect as his older brother.

Giambi to attend Old Timers’ Day

Jason Giambi, Old Timer. According to George King, Giambi will make his Old Timers’ Day debut this summer. He retired following the 2014 season and has mostly laid low since, though he seems to get mentioned as a coaching or managerial candidate every offseason. Old Timers’ Day is June 17th this season. That’s the day before the Yankees go to Washington for the makeup games.

Giambi, now 47, played for the Yankees from 2002-08 and was really productive, hitting .260/.404/.521 (145 wRC+) while averaging 29 homers and +3.1 WAR per season. I wonder if this paves the way for Alex Rodriguez and Roger Clemens to show up to Old Timers’ Day? They were all tied to performance-enhancing drugs in one way or another, after all. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

MLB proposed new All-Star Game voting system

According to Joel Sherman, MLB recently proposed a new All-Star Game fan voting system that was shot down by the MLBPA. Under the new rules fans would’ve continued to vote for the starters at each position, though there would’ve been two steps in the process. First, fans would vote for all players. Then, at a certain date, the vote would end and the top three vote-getters at each position would be put into a second vote. Since it was rejected, All-Star voting this year will be the same as always.

The idea, obviously, would be spicing up the All-Star Game voting, and create more buzz on social media and whatnot. The union, which is still rather annoyed about the way free agency played out over the winter, wanted bonus money and a piece of the revenue generated from the voting process. MLB offered a $1.1M bonus pool to be divvied up among the top three vote-getters at each position only. The new voting process seems kinda neat. I also get whey the union wants a piece of the revenue.

The Yankees are bad now, maybe forever but probably only temporarily, and this afternoon we’ll get to forget all about the 2017 Yankees for a few hours. Today is the 71st annual Old Timers’ Day, the franchise’s annual celebration of their unmatched history. Pretty much no other team can do something like this. The Dodgers tried it a year or two ago and it was kinda sad.

Based on experience, Old Timers’ Day is best enjoyed in person at Yankee Stadium, not through television. It also makes for a really, really long day in the ballpark, but that’s okay. No matter your age, many of the great Yankees of your youth will be in the ballpark today. Hall of Famers, All-Stars, fan favorites, role players … there’s something for everyone on a day like this.

Here is the roster of 2017 Old Timers. For the first time ever, a member of the Core Four Five will be in attendance. Jorge Posada is making his Old Timers’ Day debut this afternoon after inexcusably falling off the Hall of Fame ballot in his first year of eligibility over the winter. I’m not saying Posada was a no-doubt Hall of Famer, but man, he deserved more than one year on the ballot.

The Old Timers’ Day festivities will begin at approximately 11:30am ET. There will be the baseline introductions and then the Old Timers’ Game, as usual. I haven’t seen the Old Timers’ Game lineups posted anywhere, but if I find them, I’ll pass ’em along. The weather in New York today is pretty much perfect. A little on the humid side, but the sky is blue with just the right amount of clouds. The weather always seems to be great on Old Timers’ Day, doesn’t it?

Like I said, the Old Timers’ Day ceremonies begin at 11:30am ET. YES will show it of course and I believe the FOX Sports Go app will have it as well, though I can’t make any promises. MLB.tv never covers Old Timers’ Day. Sorry. Once the festivities are over, the Yankees and Rangers will wrap up their series at 2pm ET. Here is the Rangers’ lineup and here is the Yankees’ lineup:

LF Brett Gardner

CF Aaron Hicks

DH Aaron Judge

C Gary Sanchez

SS Didi Gregorius

3B Chase Headley

1B Tyler Austin

RF Mason Williams

2B Ronald Torreyes
RHP Michael Pineda

Enjoy the day.

Injury Update: CC Sabathia (hamstring) threw a 35-pitch bullpen session today and everything went well. He hopes to return as soon as possible (duh). I wonder if he could skip a minor league rehab start at this pace. We’ll see … Greg Bird (ankle) ran on the field today for the first time since receiving a cortisone shot the other day.

Latest on Shohei Otani

Earlier this week Jeff Passan posted a bit of an update on Nippon Ham Fighters ace/slugger Shohei Otani, the best player in the world not under contract with one of the 30 big league teams. Otani is only 22, which means he would be subject to the international bonus hard cap if he were to come over to MLB this offseason. Waiting until he’s 25 would allow him to sign a contract of any size. Anyway, the important details from Passan:

There is “significant skepticism” that Otani will come over to MLB this winter. Teams estimate his market value right now, at age 22, at at least $200M. Market value is not the same thing as earning potential, of course.

MLB is expected to be “vigilant to ensure the sanctity of the system is not made a mockery by extralegal payments,” meaning a team couldn’t give Otani a long-term contract shortly after signing him, thereby circumventing the hard cap.

AL teams believe they have an inside track to sign Otani because they can let him DH between starts. NL teams are wary of letting him play the outfield when he’s not on the mound.

Otani, by the way, has been hampered by a nagging ankle issue this season. He has yet to pitch and only recently did he return to the lineup as a designated hitter. He’s hitting .407/.469/.815 with five doubles and two homers in eight games so far.

Latest Mock Drafts

With the draft two days away, the consensus right now is the Twins will select Vanderbilt RHP Kyle Wright with the first overall pick. That allows California HS SS/RHP Hunter Greene, the unanimous No. 1 prospect in the draft class, to slip to the Reds with the second pick, or maybe even the Padres with the third pick. Anyway, here are the latest mock drafts and their Yankees’ picks:

In the FanGraphs write-up Eric Longenhagen notes the Yankees have had “special assistants” in to see Rogers, though I should note that isn’t unusual for any player under first round consideration. Baseball America says the Yankees have been “linked to college arms all spring, but (they) also could go for the right college bat.” MLB.com links them to California HS 1B Nick Pratto (RAB profile) in addition to Canning and Rogers.

Swisher, Boucher to represent Yankees at draft

Last week MLB announced the representatives for all 30 teams for Monday’s draft broadcast on MLB Network. Nick Swisher and Denis Boucher are representing the Yankees. Here are every team’s representatives. Swisher is Swisher. He played for the Yankees from 2009-12 and was very productive. He’ll go down as one of Brian Cashman’s greatest trades. Also, when Swisher left as a free agent, the Yankees used the compensation draft pick to select Aaron Judge. That trade is the gift that keeps on giving.

Boucher has been with the Yankees since 2010 and he more or less runs their amateur scouting in Eastern Canada. His MLB playing career was brief (1991-94 with the Blue Jays, Indians, Expos) and since then he’s worked to grow the game in Canada. Boucher has coached Canadian Olympic teams, in the World Baseball Classic, and a bunch of other international tournaments. He’s also been involved in developing Canada’s youth baseball program. Certainly not a household name, but Boucher has done a lot to promote the game north of the border. Pretty cool the Yankees are rewarding him with a trip to the draft.

Also, I should note MLB has announced four prospects will attend the draft Monday: Greene, Rogers, Kentucky HS OF Jordon Adell (RAB profile), and Alabama HS OF Bubba Thompson (RAB profile). Would be kinda cool if the Yankees picked a kid actually at the draft, no? Judge and Ian Clarkin were there for the 2013 draft, remember.

Yankees announce Old Timers’ Day roster

Old Timers’ Day is Sunday, June 25th this year — two weeks from tomorrow — and a few days ago the Yankees announced the list of attendees. Here’s the press release. Most are the usual suspects. Whitey Ford, Reggie Jackson, Paul O’Neill, Ron Guidry, etc. The guys we see every Old Timers’ Day. The most notable first time Old Timer is Jorge Posada. He’s the first member of the Core Four (groan) to attend Old Timers’ Day. Neat.

Also, during the Old Timers’ Day festivities, the Yankees will hold a special ceremony to honor new Hall of Famer Tim Raines. Raines is going into the Hall of Fame as an Expo (duh), but he was an incredibly productive platoon outfielder with the Yankees from 1996-98. Rock hit .299/.395/.429 (120 wRC+) with 18 homers and 26 steals in 940 plate appearances those years, his age 36-38 seasons. Pretty awesome.

Based on experience, Old Timers’ Day is an event best enjoyed live at Yankee Stadium. It makes for a long day at the ballpark, but being there to see all those great Yankees on the field is pretty damn awesome. Pretty much no other team in baseball can pull off something like this.

Today is the first Old Timers’ Day since Yogi Berra passed away, which is pretty sad. Yogi and George Steinbrenner had their long feud from 1985-99, but since then, he had been a staple at Old Timers’ Day. Berra was one of the greatest catchers in history and seeing players like him is what makes this day so special.

The full roster of Old Timers can be found right here. We’re still waiting for Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, and Mariano Rivera to make their Old Timers’ Day debuts, though there are still plenty of all-time great players and personal faves scheduled to appear today. I’m looking forward to seeing Bernie Williams and Hideki Matsui myself.

The Old Timers’ Day festivities are scheduled to begin at 11:30am ET or so. There will be the baseline introductions and then the Old Timers’ Game, as usual. Here are the lineups, via Pete Caldera:

Looks a wee bit lopsided to me! The Clippers have youth on their side though. Don’t underestimate guys like Bubba Crosby and Mariano Duncan. They want to show they can still play during their Old Timers’ Day debut.

We’ve got some pretty nice weather in New York today. It’s sunny with temperatures in the low-80s. It’s really windy though. My hat almost got blown off my head a few times when I went out for breakfast this morning. Like I said, the Old Timers’ Day stuff will begin at 11:30am ET. The series finale between the Yankees and Tigers will follow at 2pm ET. Enjoy the day, everyone.

Update (1:26pm ET): Here is the lineup for the regular game this afternoon:

The Yankees and Rays will continue their three-game series a little later this afternoon. Until then, here are some links to help you pass the time.

Old Timers’ Day roster announced

Earlier this week the Yankees announced the roster of attendees for the 70th annual Old Timers’ Day this summer. Old Timers’ Day is Sunday, June 12th this year. That’s two weeks from tomorrow. Among the first time Old Timers this year are John Wetteland, Mariano Duncan, Bubba Crosby (!), and Eddie Robinson. Robinson, 95, is the oldest living Yankee. Pretty cool that he’ll be there. Here’s the full Old Timers’ Day roster. Still no Core Four members. /shrugs

Mateo among Law’s top 25 midseason prospects

Keith Law updated his list of the top 25 prospects in baseball (subs. req’d) a few days ago. Both Dodgers SS Corey Seager and Twins OF Byron Buxton have since graduated to the big leagues, so Nationals RHP Lucas Giolito now sits in the top spot. SS Jorge Mateo just barely makes the list at No. 25. Here’s a piece of Law’s write-up:

Mateo’s line this year is a little fluky — .388 BABIP and more home runs (5) than he had in all of 2015 (2) — but he certainly can hit and run, which, as long as he’s at shortstop, makes him a future above-average regular with a chance to develop into a star.

I respectfully disagree about the .388 BABIP being fluky. It is not uncommon for a top prospect to run a high BABIP in the minors, especially speedy guys like Mateo. A .380-ish BABIP across the full season wouldn’t be completely nuts. Anyway, Mateo ranked 55th on Law’s preseason list, so he made a real big jump in the span of two months. OF Aaron Judge ranked 35th before the season and is not in the updated top 25.

Pettitte, Thurman to represent Yankees at 2016 draft

Andy Pettitte and scout Mike Thurman will represent the Yankees during the 2016 draft broadcast on MLB Network this year, MLB announced. Here is the full list of team representatives. It reads like an MVP Baseball 2005 roster. Thurman is the team’s Pacific Northwest scout and Pettitte is Pettitte. Commissioner Rob Manfred announces all first round picks during the broadcast before the team representatives take over, so Pettitte figures to announce New York’s second round selection (No. 62 overall). David Cone, Jeff Nelson, Tino Martinez, and Willie Randolph are among those who have represented the Yankees in previous drafts.

Yankee Stadium security guard fired for stealing memorabilia

According to Nathaniel Vinton, a Yankee Stadium security guard — and former NYPD detective — named Joe Flannino was fired for stealing memorabilia. Flannino was on the Yankee Stadium security staff from 1997-2013 before being reassigned to the archive room, which is where he was caught lifting documents. As far as I can tell there was no arrest made. Flannino was terminated and apologized to team officials. I wonder what else is in that archive room. Probably some pretty cool (and valuable) stuff, huh?